Luhrmann to parade Australia's epic scale

BAZ Luhrmann paused before revealing the title of his epic
outback romance for the first time outside his inner circle.

"The name is shocking," the director said with a laugh. "It's
called Australia."

The first film for the Sydney director since Moulin Rouge
has been given the go-ahead from Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox.
Luhrmann has overcome the withdrawal of Russell Crowe and budget
concerns by the studio to begin pre-production.

There will be a workshop at Sydney's Fox Studios before
Christmas, with the cast working on riding, costumes, the script
and test scenes. Filming will start in the Kimberley in March and
take five months.

The budget is believed to be $US100 million ($A130 million),
which would make it, along with the new penguin animation Happy
Feet, one of the country's most expensive films.

Luhrmann said the film centred on an English aristocrat, played
by Nicole Kidman, who comes to Australia to sell a cattle property
the size of Belgium.

After an epic journey across country, she and rough-hewn drover
Hugh Jackman are caught in the Japanese bombing of Darwin during
World War II.

The title Australia was chosen over Great Southern
Land and Faraway Downs, the name of the homestead in the
film.

"I'm taking the perspective of the rest of the world to this
film how they might view Australia," Luhrmann said. "When you say
Casablanca or Oklahoma! it means big. It means vast
I'm not saying this film is Australia. It's a metaphor for a
state of mind, for the faraway.

"What people tend not to know is that more tonnage of bombs were
dropped by the same attack force on Darwin as Pearl Harbour. They
bombed Darwin 64 times. We were completely lied to in the south
about it."